The Big Picture of Savings

Valify Solutions Group streamlines purchased services for health systems

A healthcare organization’s product portfolio has seemingly countless components—from personal protective equipment to medical devices, medications and everything in between. But one area that’s often overlooked is the breadth of services it takes to keep hospitals running. With over 1,200 categories—including things like laundry and linen service, elevator maintenance and food services—purchased services account for an average of 45% of a facility’s non-labor spend.

Valify launches diversity reporting

Valify Solutions Group helps organizations hone in on their purchased services, offering data-driven insight into things like how many suppliers they have in each category and where they could achieve significant savings. Valify has announced a new feature that will give facilities insight into another key area: the diversity of their suppliers.

Countless health systems are prioritizing their diversity spend, and these initiatives are coming from the C-suite down, says Raelyn Wilson, COO of Valify. “We’re adapting the Valify technology to support those efforts,” she says.

Valify’s diversity reporting tool identifies suppliers with a diversity designation, says Jeanne McRedmond, Product Manager for Valify. There will be a badge next to diverse suppliers along with the certification source and expiration date. The diversity designation will identify a range of categories, including minority-, women-, veteran- and LGBTQ+-owned businesses. In the future, the Valify team will be adding additional reporting around diverse supplier spend.

“The diversity reporting tool will provide value to our members by supporting their ability to make decisions around diversity suppliers and spend,” McRedmond says.

However, getting an accurate pulse on a facility’s purchased services spend can be a challenge for a number of reasons. Organizations often have various contracts and suppliers in each category without realizing it, due to a lack of streamlined processes and communication. It is also more difficult to benchmark the cost of services versus the cost of products (compounded by the fact that purchased services vary geographically). And, it can be taxing to achieve effective collaboration between the supply chain and individual departments within a hospital.

The result? Hospitals overspend billions per year on purchased services.

Streamlining solutions

In June 2020, HealthTrust and Valify launched Valify Solutions Group, a group purchasing organization (GPO) for non-labor purchased services. Valify Solution Group’s goal is to help solve challenges in the world of purchased services by offering a comprehensive, data-driven look at an organization’s complete portfolio and offering up solutions for where and how facilities can save.

Valify has several tools designed to help facilities streamline their purchased services. The GPO’s spend analysis technology automates spend categorization visibility, while its purchased services assessment (PSA) tool helps facilities comb through their data to find ways to save. Valify’s data updates monthly, which offers facilities the ability to mine for opportunities instead of simply waiting for contracts to expire.

“The PSA is designed to help you take a proactive approach to managing categories, rather than just reacting to pain points,” says Andy Motz, Assistant Vice President with Valify Solutions Group’s Custom Contracting & Advisory Services.

Industry leaders may have overlooked purchased services in the past, but Motz says we’ve turned a page. “If anything has changed in the last 10 years, it’s that purchased services is finally becoming more centralized and receiving the emphasis and attention it needs,” he adds.

Learn how you can drive value in purchased services for your organization by contacting the Valify team today at 972.963.5130 or info@valifysolutionsgroup.com